Commentary

Seth Farber explores the Rav's 1932 in local Boston historical context.

Ben Frogel reviews a new volume that introduces thirty-five different Jewish approaches to virtue ethics and attempts to link them into one continuous tradition.

So many of the most exciting developments in Jewish thought, explains Ariel Rackovsky, are occurring in Israel. Are American Jews sufficiently aware of them?

Today's letters to the editor rethink the utility of Torah u-Madda in today's world. Noam Stadlan reminds us that all knowledge is God's creation and thus inherently valuable, while Larry Grossman (author of “The Rise and Fall of Torah U’Madda“) argues that Torah u-Madda fails to address the various issues that now confront Modern Orthodoxy.

Elli Fischer reads one of Rashi's most famous comments against the grain.

Zvi Grumet suggests that when read in sequence, the kinot of R. Elazar Ha-Kalir—often seen as the ones most difficult to understand—offer a powerful theological narrative from despair to hope.

Devora Steinmetz Thank you to Rabbi Saul Berman for his essay about the deliberations and planning that led to Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik’s opening shiur at Stern...

Ari Lamm writes in tribute to the late Louis Feldman, examining his scholarship in light of personal experience.

Warren Zev Harvey reflects on the pain and fear of Israel’s current moment, finding unexpected hope in R. Joseph Kaspi’s anti-deterministic theory of history. The essay was originally published in Hebrew and translated by the author.

In his review of Jessica Roda's For Women and Girls Only: Reshaping Jewish Orthodoxy through the Arts in the Digital Age, Ben Rothke considers the ways Orthodox women have dealt with halachic obstacles a claim a space for themselves as performers using new and social media.